Anybody
by Margot-Eve
Summary: Post-movie. Sequel to "Nobody" story. Nobody was not captured, but Roxanne tries to live normally, building her relationship with Megamind. Unfortunately the mysterious villain has other plans.
1. Chapter 1

I only own Nobody (though I'd rather get the creep out of my head). Megamind and the rest of the cast belongs to Dreamworks.

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><p>"<em>Giving up, Miss Ritchi?" said the familiar, hated voice of Nobody.<em>

"_Go to Hell," Roxanne wheezed._

"_Oh, I will, no doubt." If only Roxanne's brain was working properly; she would have noticed that the voice was coming from much shorter distance. "But first, I'll have my fun here while I'm still alive."_

_A gloved hand grabbed the woman's hair, forcing her to open up her eyes. But what she saw made her sick to the stomach._

_The mask was gone and she was looking… at herself._

Roxanne awoke, sitting up abruptly and breathing spasmodically, trying to calm down.

"It was just a dream, just a bad dream…" She hid her face in her hands, rubbing it quickly. Slowly she regained her calm.

The brunette looked around the room, finding herself alone in the bedroom. She shook her head with a smile; her super genius boyfriend was working late again. It had been a few months since they became a couple, and a month since she had moved into his lair. She threw a dressing gown over herself and left the room in order to find her beau.

Roxanne saw a light behind the red curtains and wondered what kind of blueprints he was drawing. She entered the area and a feeling of dread filled her. Something was… wrong. She looked around; everything was in place. Then what…?

The leather chair. It was different. And it shouldn't be there. Roxanne knew it was stupid, irrational and that she should leave now! But her feet moved forward against her will. And when she was within reach of the chair it slowly turned and revealed… the horrifying No mask, frozen in an artificial smile.

"Feeling safe, Roxanne?" Nobody asked.

Roxanne woke up screaming. Suddenly she was taken into an embrace by blue arms, and her ear was filled with the loving and reassuring voice of Megamind.

"It's okay. It was just a dream. I'm here, shhh." Rocking her back and forth he stroked her hair and kissed her head.

Roxanne clung to him sobbing. She felt helpless, scared and furious. It had been nearly a year since her abduction and the fuckhead was still nowhere to be found. It felt like the whole nightmare she'd been through was a freaking figment of her mind. No traces; nothing! Metro Man and Megamind tried to find Nobody, though separately, while they were still enemies. When Roxanne got over her initial shock, she informed the FBI and even made her own investigation and found nothing. After the Tighten fiasco, Megamind joined forces with Music Man but the results were the same. If there were some clues, _something_ to pin point the direction… but there was nothing. Even the sticky notes lead to nothing. No DNA; just Roxanne's testimony that Nobody looked like herself.

Roxanne hated feeling like she was helpless. It frustrated her beyond comparison. And for the first time in her life, she was scared of the dark. That was why she was grateful for Megamind when she found Brainbots in her apartment the night she returned home. Their electric lights and quiet humming and bow-bowing gave her a strange sense of comfort.

They never spoke again about Nobody, but what had happened right before she left the Lair added a certain spice to their usual bantering, making it more like flirting than anything else. Roxanne felt so safe with the villain; that was why, when he managed to defeat Metro Man, she felt so…betrayed. Then Bernard happened and she felt safe again…until that fateful dinner. That was a catastrophe; a blow she was not ready to take, and she vented it all on Megamind. How dare he play like that with her! And he even… Oh… With a bigger mess in her head than ever she went back home, trying with all her might to forget those green eyes.

After the defeat of Tighten she was confused with her feelings. But after a good scold from Lena she decided that yes, she loved him, and… She was so happy with him. Loved, safe, adored, cherished. Even the nightmares had stopped…until now.

_Next day…_

"We've seen the tapes thousands of times, Roxanne. And I nearly went blind during reading those reports." Megamind watched his girlfriend carrying some boxes into the 'movie room'; a place in the lair with a TV screen as big as the whole wall. "I've analyzed them frame by frame, line by line. There's nothing on them."

"I… I know, it's just…" Roxanne brushed a strand of hair from her ear. "It pisses me off that this _freak_ is still out there… There has to be something!"

He sighed, and hugged her. "I understand. Believe me, if I ever see that monster, I won't be using the De-hydration option on my gun. She'll pay for what she did to you."

"Why do you think it was female?"

"It? Well you said it looked like you…" Megamind scratched the back of his head, looking puzzled.

"I know, but… it was strange. It had my face, but something was wrong… It was off. I think it was the eyes, and that voice… Honey, I know it's weird but I don't think what I saw under that mask was believable…" Roxanne bit her fingernail, deep in thought. Something was escaping her, the same thing she tried to find for a year and a half.

"So what do you expect to find which I, the FBI and Metro weren't able to find before?"

"No idea. Maybe…I just need to…do something. That dream shook me up pretty badly."

"Fine, I give up… Can I help you in this?"

"Sure." She kissed him on the cheek and unpacked the first box.

First they went through the video tapes.

"First to leave was Mr. Brown," Roxanne said slowly, watching the recording. "He's a real workaholic. Leaves at the sunrise, comes back late at night…" she said mostly to herself. "Then it's Miss Jenkins with her dog, Mrs. and Mr. Thomson, then it's me…"

Megamind read testimonies of Roxanne's neighbors. "Mr. Brown came back later for his car keys."

"Here he is." Roxanne pointed to the screen where the grey haired man waved nervously to Carlos.

"He lives under you?"

"Yes, his apartment is just below mine…" Roxanne sighed. Megamind was right, it was pointless; she knew those tapes by heart now. She could quote every line in those files without looking.

On screen, the tenants appeared and disappeared just like Roxanne said. Including Mr. Brown, who left with his keys.

"He was the only one who, on that day, when you received those sushi stick, acted slightly against his usual pattern," Megamind concluded, closing the files in his hands.

"But I was still in the building when he came back for his keys." Roxanne groaned in frustration. She rewound the tape. Suddenly she stopped it. "Hey…"

"What's that?"

"Look at his shadow. He went left."

"So?"

"When he at first left the building, he went right; he came from the right direction and now he turned left."

"Maybe he dropped the keys and they fell down the stairs?" The blue man quickly checked the files. "Hmm… he hadn't mentioned this in here… Do you think it means anything?"

"I don't know. Maybe I'm over reacting…"

It's dark. Just what it likes. It doesn't need light to see. Light is such a trivial matter; a human's invention. Like society. It preferred solitary. Loneliness was calming. It never understood the need to be with someone.

It stands in front of a mirror, placing both hands on the glass. It's so close to the answer, yet so far. It thinks back to the time when it wasn't alone. There was a Creator, but he's gone. He left it alone in the dark. But it learned how to leave, to experience the world. It observed humans, day by day; watching them, studying them. They were humans, but what was _it_? It was nobody.

But it wanted to be somebody! It learned how to mix with humans, how to infiltrate their society. But just watching the crowd was not enough; the amount of data was not enough. It began to read and gather more information. How to be human?

Psychology. It was fascinated by this. How the brain worked, what made humans human. Now observation delivered much more data than before. In order to be human it decided to experiment on itself. And it understood one thing about humans. There was no pattern in their behavior; it was all irrational. They were lead by emotions, no logic of any sort. And the most irrational of them all was love and hate. It was not loved and could not love back, because it had no one to love. Even from afar. But it could hate. And it hated; it hated humans for what they had and what _it _could never have. But even in this hate it could not feel much. It wanted more and realized it was greedy. Greedy; just like humans. The greed grew with hate. It wanted to know more, understand more and to feel more! This gave it hope and feeling of self accomplishment. It was so close to being like them. Weren't humans just as greedy as _it_ was? Most definitely! Their wars were because of greed, the empires rose and fell because of greed, they gathered in groups because of greed! It was so happy to discover this, to be much closer to being like them a little bit more than before!

But it needed more data. In one of the books it read that humans, placed in extreme situations, showed their 'true colors'. At first it tried with random people. But they were boring; their patterns were so predictable. They were better off dead. It spent moths thinking who it should test next. There were six billion humans on Earth. The search itself was interesting. The more it watched, the more it understood. For once it discovered that it was much better than they were. It tried to understand while they rarely did. It was superior to them, while they were its test subjects. Guinea pigs. It was thrilled by this discovery and had much more ideas how to push them.

Roxanne Ritchi… She was its third subject. Brave, stubborn. It was fun to watch how she struggled against it. Denied its superiority. And now, a year later, she surprised it again. She and that blue man; Megamind. It knew that they and Metro Man tried to find it. But it was smarter than that. It knew how to hide traces; it had years to learn that. Humans were so easy to fool, even with their 'advanced' technology.

The mirror cracked slightly under its touch. The news was almost like an invitation for it. Should it…? Was this… irrational, to go back there? Was this human?

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><p>It's baaack! The freaking creep is back and it plans something nasty again...<p>

Review! or Nobody is going to haunt you until the end of the world!


	2. Chapter 2

What It admired the most and about humans was their ability to create. Music, art, another human; of course, It was also jealous of those abilities. _It_ could not create. When a human saw a tree, he saw a painting or a sculpture or a table, and heard the music made by the wind in the tree's branches. _It_ just saw the tree. Neither could it create another like itself. _It_ could only copy or manipulate humans to do something it wanted.

The most annoying thing about humans was that they came in two genders. Male and female. This was the biggest obstacle for It. _It_ was neither. Gender, it reasoned, could be a great help in order to understand them. That's what It thought at first. Then It thought; _maybe if I have none, then I can choose one?_ But it was more complicated that it seemed. Humans had complicated their genders so much that even It could not comprehend them. And to tell the truth, It didn't care for gender at all. But because it was something important for humans, It experimented with this part of the characteristic. Though, something was always odd. Even It could feel that. But it was useful, nonetheless.

Especially now. During It's short stay in Metro City a year ago, It had avoided the 'underground elements'. Now, It needed to pay a visit to the other villains; people who were _really_ evil, unlike Megamind during his 'supervillain' days.

It entered the night club wearing a female form. The suit was changed to a short, black and white flapper dress with parallel rows of fringes; the two-tone shoes were exchanged for black, T-striped shoes; only the white gloves and the hair tied in a knot using two white sticks remained the same. The No mask was absent. For now. It had borrowed the face of some random woman on the street.

People in the club ignored It, too drunk or drugged to notice. But some…

" 'ey baby! Wanna 'ave fun?" A drunk man sneaked his arm around It, sending a cloud of alcohol-stinking breath toward its face.

It grimaced in disgust and rolled its eyes. It had already studied the addicted types of human and had no interest in this person. And It had business here; _important_ business, otherwise It might have stopped to play with him. But for now…

It grabbed the face of the man, sapped his neck and threw him toward the bar. When the friends of the unfortunate individual found him, It was already behind the doors leading backstage.

_A week later…_

The KMCP8 News reporters were busy like never before. The news was coming in like a tidal wave. The gang fights were more violent, and even Megamind could not help prevent them or stop the fighters before it was too late, and most of the participants were wounded, deadly wounded or already dead. He couldn't be everywhere at once, and he didn't know everything which happened in the city, no matter how many Brainbots he had. Many people started to whisper; if Metro Man was still alive, this would never happen. Some hissed that it was Megamind's fault; after all, he was responsible for Metro Man's "death".

This kind of commentary, if heard by Roxanne, fueled her anger and resulted in a good scold from her. The comments were _very_ unfair toward Megamind, who was working really hard in order to stop the wave of crime. He reprogrammed and improved his security systems and installed the programs into the police network. He was no Metro Man, but he tried his best. It wasn't his fault that the gang leaders had gone bonkers and started fighting each other. And, by looking on the bright side, it wasn't some supervillain trying to take over the city.

Roxanne sat at her desk in a sour. It was all Wayne's fault… She decided she needed to talk with him and negotiate something about that 'death' of his… It was so unfair on Megamind…

"Ritchi! My office, now!" Frank Bonnin, Roxanne's boss, shouted from the other side of the room.

Curious as to what her boss might want from her, Roxanne quickly followed Bonning into his office.

"What happened, Frank?" she asked him, just in front of the door to his office.

"Get inside." The older man opened the doors. Roxanne walked inside and on the small couch she saw a dark haired man in his forties. He wore black suit, white shirt and black tie. The brunette wondered if he was in mourning; he was very solemn, almost expressionless.

Frank closed the doors and sat behind his desk.

"Roxanne, this is Nicolay Nikto. Mr. Nikt, this is Miss Ritchi, our top reporter," Frank introduced the stranger to Roxanne. The man nodded to her. "Roxanne, Mr. Nikto here is a representative of NanoCorp. He's asking if we can help advertise his company."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Nikto." She smiled and greeted the man.

"It's _Nikolaj_, Miss Ritchi. I hope we can work something out." He smiled stiffly, as if not used to such movement of muscles. He spoke fluent English, which only got cracked on his name. "My company comes from Russia; we're producing microchips and running research on nanotechnology," Nikto explained.

"Why would you want us to help advertise your company, Nicolay? And it's Roxanne." She tried to stay friendly with the businessman, though something about him bothered her.

"NanoCorp just started their operations in USA, and we would like you to do a report, yes? And we need someone who has some competence in the subject. You, _Roksanne,_ have a lot of contact with the science field through your current boyfriend, right?" He probably meant to make this sound like a light and friendly comment, but a lack of emotions in his voice made it sound quite opposite.

"Why not CNN?" She dug deeper into the subject.

"We're starting here in the region of Great Lakes. We're taking small steps; we want to adjust ourselves to _Amerika._ CNN will come later." Nicolay waved his hand casually, making this sound like a trivial matter. "Will you do it _Roksanne_?"

"I… well, can I talk for a moment with my boss privately, Nicolay?" She sent a look to Frank, who nodded slightly.

The businessman shrugged. "I have no objections. I'll wait outside."

When he left, Roxanne sighed with relief.

"Frank, I understand you want something else other than the gang fights on the evening news, but I'm not sure if I should do it."

"He's suspicious, I know," said Frank, rubbing his chin. "But they'll pay us." He smiled at her and she tried to look innocent. "They wanted you, and I know that if there's something stinky going on, you'll find it. You're the best when it comes to investigations. And if you're unsure about the topic, you can always…"

"Ask Megamind." She smiled, finishing for him. "I know… Fine, I'll do it."

"Great. Let's call him in and set a date for the interview and a laboratory tour." The man happily called his secretary, asking her to invite Nikto back.

_Later…_

"NanoCorp? Yeah, I've heard about them." Megamind put down the wielding torch and looked at his girlfriend. "They're fresh players, but there's rumors that they're quite the dark horse. Why are you asking?"

"Today we had a visit from a guy named Nicolay Nikto…" she began, but Megamind snorted and she looked at him. "What's so funny?"

"You know… Nicolay Nikto. His name is funny."

"Why?"

"In Russian, Nikto can mean 'none' or 'nobody'. Nicolas Nobody." Then a light bulb had lightened up in his head. "You don't think…"

Roxanne looked a little horrified, but she put on a brave face to hide the pain. That didn't stop her from making the same connection as her boyfriend. "Looks like Frank was right. This will be an investigation, after all."

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><p>For those of you who are familiar with my 'Addiction' story, Frank Bonnin was Roxanne's producer in the original script of Megamind (Master Mind) ;] So say thank you to the LJ comm and ScarletFrost for finding it ;]<p>

Review! Please?


	3. Chapter 3

(listen to the song Escape the Fate - Lost in Darkness, like right now. it inspired me to write the first scene in this chapter ;] I think it's also the theme song for Nobody.)

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><p>The man ran as fast as he could. Fear overwhelmed him; short whines of dread escaped his mouth as he tried to find help. Someone…anyone! <em>Please God, if you really exist, help!<em> He made a sudden turn and crashed into someone. Falling down, he thought he was saved. Raising his eyes with hope, the man looked up at the stranger…and cried in terror. That mask! He began to crawl back with desperation. Tears began to stream down his face, but he was almost oblivious to them.

"Please…" he begged. "Please…"

The mask, frozen in a smile, moved closer. "You should have minded your own business, human." The voice was rid of all emotions and interest. This was a simple statement, similar to the one that the sky was blue.

"Please… No… Mercy." The man felt with his hands as he reached a wall. Trapped. He tried to mold into it… hide… escape…

The creature sighed and approached him slowly. The last scream of life was cut short, and the man died in the darkness.

_The next day…_

Roxanne rubbed her forearm. It wasn't exactly cold, but coming from the hot outside into the well air-conditioned laboratory was quite shocking to her systems.

"Good morning, _Roksanne,_" Nikto welcomed her and her new cameraman, Anthony. His voice was as dry as usual.

"Good morning, Nicolay," she greeted the man. "I'm sorry for calling you yesterday on such late notice-"

The man waved his hand, interrupting her.

"It's not a problem; _Metrocitie's _hero Megamind is more than welcome here." Roxanne blinked, surprised to hear this mispronunciation so familiar, yet different. "But where is he?"

"He's parking his car. He should be here…" She paused and turned her head, hearing the doors behind her open and close. "…in a minute," she finished smiling.

"_Ollo_. Sorry, I'm late, but it was quite hard to find a parking space." Megamind walked over to Roxanne, sending her a warm smile. He then saw Nicolay, and his face became very unfriendly. The brunette sighed and elbowed him in the ribs. Megamind was a horrible actor when it came to interacting with people; he was just too honest with his emotions.

Anthony raised his eyebrow but didn't comment, and Nikto remained unfazed. "I'll show you around and introduce you to our top researcher, Katherine Fitzgerald. She'll also be the one you'll be interviewing, _Roksanne_."

The ID's were distributed along with lab coats, and the group were ready for the tour.

The building was amazing. It was twice the size of Megamind's warehouse, clean, sterile and…white. White everywhere. People in white lab coats, white walls, white furniture; the only other colour beside white was the silver of the mechanisms and the black rubber.

"The concept of this company arose in 1960, when A.I. research in _Amerika _had reached its peak. The author was my grandfather, _Awdiey Woronin,_ but it couldn't have been executed until the beginning of the 21st century due to financial problems and changes in the Russian political systems." Nicolay led the 'tour'. "Right now, we're quickly climbing the ladder, thanks to ours associates." The businessman stopped in front of one of the laboratories, where people in white were cutting something in half. Nicolay went inside, motioning his guests to follow him.

Megamind's eyes widened and sparkled with excitement once he saw the crystal being cut.

"Gallium nitride… Where did you get such a big crystals? And of this clarity?"

For the first time, Roxanne saw the Russian smile. She knew this was the moment where she was only going to be a spectator, watching her boyfriend and the man talking about science.

"The production of those is very complicated, as you know. Also very expensive. We cannot produce them here. It's our associates who are producing them and sending them here."

"Who? Japanese?" Megamind took a guess.

"No. A country much closer to my homeland. Ammono, from Poland. They managed to discover the right process to produce crystals of this size and clarity."

Megamind nodded, transfixed with the crystals.

"Excuse me, but can you explain to me what gallium nitride is?" Roxanne asked.

The blue man smiled at her and began. "Well, I use it in lots of my inventions, but generally humans use it for reading the Blu-Ray discs and LEDs. The Gallium Nitride's sensitivity to ionizing radiation is low, making it also a suitable material for solar cell arrays for satellites. Because Gallium Nitride transistors can operate at much hotter temperatures and work at much higher voltages than Gallium Arsenide transistors, they make ideal power amplifiers at microwave frequencies. This is the material which can be used to build quantum computers. It's also used in AESA systems."

"What's AESA?"

"Active Phased Array Radar. It allows ships and aircraft to broadcast powerful radar signals while still remaining stealthy."

The reporter and her cameraman exchanged glances. This science, even if interesting, was a difficult subject to comprehend immediately after exposure to it.

"So those crystals are very useful, right?"

"Yes," Nicolay said. "Crystals with different colours hold different characteristics. Unfortunately Gallium Nitride does not exist in a natural environment; this is where Ammono comes in."

"Why do you cut it?"

"When the crystal is big enough, it's sliced into semiconductor…wafers, which are then arranged into layers, forming a semiconductor material used, for example, to allow the production of lasers to read Blu-Ray. But that's just a small percent of what we do in NanoCorp." Nicolay looked around the laboratory and called one of the scientists. They talked for a moment and then returned to the group. "It seems Katherine's late…"

"Then maybe you could give us the interview, since you're just as competent in the topic as your employee?" Roxanne suggested and gave Antony a signal to set the camera down.

Nicolay rubbed his chin. "I'd prefer it if Katherine was the one to talk about the company; she's more…public friendly."

"What do you mean?"

"_Roksanne,_ I run this company, but I'm perfectly aware that my character causes people discomfort, since I'm not so open in expressing myself. Katherine is our PR manager."

They decided to wait for the woman, who came running. She apologized to her boss, saying something about traffic and parking spaces. Nicolay nodded and then introduced the two women to each other.

Megamind raised an eyebrow and sent Roxanne a look. She would be busy with the interview, so it was his turn to act. He cleared his throat. "I don't want to be a problem, but could someone show me the way to restroom?"

"Of course. I'll show you the way. I need to check things in my office, anyway," Nicolay offered, and both men left.

"This place is really amazing, mister Nikto."

"Please, call me _Nikolay. _ And thank you. Though it's not exactly what my grandfather wanted." The man sighed.

"What do you mean?"

"My grandfather wanted the company to work solely on Artificial Intelligence development. He saw it as the future of a man kind. He didn't want them to only act intelligently; he wanted them to evolve on their own." He sighed. "I know he would be thrilled to meet you. I've seen those robots of yours, and their A.I. systems are exceeding my expectations."

"Well, it's not just A.I." The blue scientist chuckled. "They have an organic core, too."

Nicolay blinked. "Cyborgs. Wonderful! You really need to show them to me." His face stretched into genuine smile, but then he quickly calmed himself down. "Sorry, I'm acting too friendly, am I not?"

"A bit. But I don't mind, and to your disappointment I can't show you them."

"Oh, right. You're worried I might want to copy them." The businessman nodded. They stopped.

"Down that corridor on the left-hand side are the restrooms." Nicolay gestured to the corridor on the right. "My office is this way." He pointed ahead of himself. "I would love to discuss some more with you."

The men parted. Megamind quickly found himself in the bathroom. He pulled a small box from his pocket and opened it, placing it on the floor.

There was a sound similar to falling needles as something left the box. The ex-super villain smirked. _You work with nanotechnology; how will you deal with a small army of nanobots?_

When it was quiet again, he flushed and returned to Roxanne.

_Later…_

"So what do we have on them?" Megamind asked the brunette, once they were back at the lair.

"Well, Awdiey Woronin's son in law, Andriey Nikto, was the one who started the company. But it was his wife, Biełła and his son, Nicolay who made it what it is today. A family of scientists. But I can't seem to find anything suspicious on them… But I can't shake this feeling that Nicolay's hiding something." Roxanne rubbed her temple. "You found something?"

"We need to wait for the nanobots to return. Then I can analyze the data they gathered," he said, putting his hands on the nape of her neck and massaging it slightly. Roxanne sighed and relaxed.

"You were quite excited today," she noticed.

"I expected the Japanese to be the ones to first discover a way to produce crystals like those we've seen today; not some small company in Poland."

"You made your research already?"

"Yes. And I'm impressed."

"I can see that." Another sigh. "I'm tired…Too much science."

"I can see that," Megamind chuckled.

Suddenly Roxanne's phone rang. She quickly picked it up.

"Roxanne Ritchi… Frank? What happened?" Her eyes went wide and she bit her fingernail. "I understand… Yes, I'm okay… Fine, I'll see you tomorrow."

"What happened?"

"Carl Alleyne's missing. Probably dead. They found his clothes and lots of blood in some dead end alley…" She gulped. "He was a freelance reporter. I worked with him before."

"You think he found something?"

"Maybe… I'm not sure. We need to check it."

"Aye, ma'am!"

_Somewhere else…_

It was sleeping when It heard the sound and saw something moving fast across the floor. It quickly fished for it and soon, It was staring at a microscopic robot. It turned the machine around, inspecting it. Not thinking much, It crushed the tiny robot in its fingers. _Seriously, Megamind, this is called trespassing. _

And It did not like trespassing.

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><p>Sorry about the amount of science here xD Someone on LJ said that this fandom taught himher more science than the school. Well... I'm seconding this statement.

Also Ammono, is a real company. Just Google it ;]

Review?


	4. Chapter 4

Roxanne stormed into the Police station.

"I need to see detective Yensen," she said to the officer behind the counter. "My name is Roxanne Ritchi from Channel 8, it's regarding Carl Alleyne's disappearance, probably murder."

"Please wait a moment, I'll check if he's not busy." He made a short call and then gestured to her to proceed. "He's in the laboratory now, but you can wait by his desk," he told her. She thanked him and ventured further into the station.

She waited for detective Yensen for about ten minutes.

"Roxanne," he greeted from across the room once he spotted her.

Roxanne smiled at the detective and waited for him to get to her.

"Hi, Jude. I wish we could meet on some different conditions…" she said, shaking his hand.

"Me too. So where's that blue…"

"Jude…" she warned the man. It was no secret that some members of the police force were still wary of Megamind, and still didn't quite trust him.

"Guy," he finished with a toothy grin. "So, what do you want from me?"

"I've heard you were assigned to Alleyne's case," Roxanne started slowly. "Carl was my friend. We participated in a few investigations together." She sighed. "I think he might have discovered something… Something related to _that _case. He called me few weeks ago, saying that he'd found something big, and that it might help me… Now he's gone…"

"Yeah, weird thing with that, if you ask me." The detective scratched the back of his head. He looked around, unsure if he should speak with her at all about the case. Finally he decided. "Listen, I'm telling you this because you helped me out a lot. Follow me."

They walked into an empty interrogation room (the other part of it, not the one where the suspect sat).

"Well…?" Roxanne looked at Jude, waiting.

"We found his clothes. We know they're his because of the reader I.D. from local Library. There was some blood and brain cells, but I still don't have the test results so it's just a suspicion that the blood was his…" Detective Yensen ran a hand through his hair, obviously nervous. "His clothes were… fastened up. Which was odd. If someone undressed him for whatever sick reason he or she or they had, why would they care to button his shirt back up? It looked like he was sucked out of them… You know, the more I think about it the more it sounds like some cheap class horror movie element."

"Is there something else?" The reporter started to feel the same nervousness as Jude.

"Yeah… Just before you came, the FBI called. Apparently things like this have happened before, all across the globe. For at least five years now." He took a deep breath. "None of the bodies were ever found nor identified. We don't know who does it; there's no traces, no fingerprints, hairs, evidence of fights. No body. Nothing."

"Nobody…" Roxanne whispered to herself. "Have you secured his computer?"

"Our technicians are on it. But it seems the Hard Drive has been wiped clean," Jude informed her.

"Could Megamind take a look at it?"

The man looked as if he was torn between accepting the help and refusing it. After a long while of battling with his thoughts, he sighed. "Fine. But tell him to come after hours. I don't want to get in troubles with my superiors…"

_Later that day…_

"It's really empty," Megamind announced after half an hour of working with the laptop.

"Well… told ya," Joe, Jude's friend and an IT specialist, said.

"It shouldn't be…" the blue hero muttered a bit upset.

"Why?" Roxanne asked him curious. "If someone removed the data, why is it so surprising?"

"To explain this the easiest way…" Megamind began rubbing his chin. "Imagine that computer is a brain. You store memories and information in your mind the same way computer stores data. It just uses binary code instead of neurons." He smiled at his own comparison. Roxanne suppressed the need to roll her eyes. He was getting into the 'mad scientist' mode. "When you forget something, it's not really forgotten. It's just that you don't need the info right away. Sometimes you have a feeling you've learnt something before or you have sudden flashback from your childhood; sometimes in the least expected moments of the least expected and most embarrassing stuff. Same goes for computers. Even if you delete something, there are programs which can restore lost data, which are still somewhere there, though not accessible through normal ways."

"So you say that someone cleaned even those hidden data?"

"Exactly! It could have been a bug…" The villain-turned-hero got lost in his thoughts for a moment, then he run his fingers across the keyboard really fast. "Hmm…"

"We tried that too." Joe muttered, bored and honestly pessimistic about the whole thing. Roxanne began to wonder if he was related to Bernard. "We got nada."

Megamind ignored the man, and after few minutes he smiled one of his brilliant 'I did it!' smiles.

"Well, it seems your puny tracking programs cannot compare to my brilliant hacking skills," he gloated, and added a little bit quieter, "After all, I broke into your computer systems more than twenty times…"

Joe stuck his tongue at him behind his back.

"That's strange…" Megamind triumph died a little bit.

"What's now?" The technician leaned over the blue man's shoulder, looking closer at the screen. "Hey… I haven't seen that before… Is that…?"

"An organic program?" Megamind's eyes grew wide as the saucers. "I thought no one had invented those yet… Shit. Look at it! It's…" His voice died, unable to speak the revelation.

"Evolving…" Joe whispered with kind of awe. "Are you able to track where it came from?"

"I… I might try. Even I haven't yet reached such a level…" He quickly entered few codes, but the program rejected it. "It's fighting against me."

"So game over, right?" the IT expert more like announced than asked.

"I don't think so…" Roxanne immediately recognized the smile on her boyfriend's face. He sniffed a good challenge and wouldn't back down, now. "I need to take this computer with me. Give me a day or two and this thing would be dancing to our tune."

"Uh-huh…" Joe made a sour expression. "I don't think you can just take one of the main evidences from here, just like that. Even if you _are_ the new hero of Metro City."

"I'm afraid he's right, honey," Roxanne spoke out. "And stealing it from here is not an option either."

"Hmm…" Megamind examined the laptop closely. "We could replace it… It's not like anyone here is skilled enough to work with the A.I. virus…" He sent Joe a look, who turned his head and whistled softly.

Roxanne giggled a bit. The blue hero sighed and contacted Minion. In a matter of an hour they had replaced the computer with a perfect replica of it.

"Wouldn't it be easier if you worked here?" the IT expert asked when Megamind was packing the laptop in his bag.

"I need more space and fewer cops behind my back. I'm an ex-convict. I don't feel safe with so much justice workers around," he explained.

Joe put his hands in his trousers pockets. "I got used to it somehow." The blue man raised eyebrows at the man, who snickered. "I used to be a hacker once."

"They caught you?"

"Naah. I decided it was getting old and boring since there was no real challenge in it. So one day I just packed my notebook and went on a walk to the nearest police station and offered them cooperation. It took them five days to finally uncover all of my dirty deeds…with me pin-pointing where to look. Now I have some _real_ fun trying to find people like me." The ex-hacker sighed. "But it seems I'm out of shape since I couldn't do a thing with that laptop…"

Megamind smiled. "The program is self-learning. Once you started the attempts to find it, it began to hide itself from you. I was something new and faster than its learning systems."

"Good luck with it then."

Two men – ex-convicts, now law obeying citizens – shook hands. A new friendship was formed.

It was a sudden awareness, like a gunshot, pulling it out of the abyss. It felt itself, it knew it was IT, but what was _IT_?

"_Who am I?" _it asked out loud.

"_Nobody," _someone suddenly said.

"_Who are you?"_

"_Your Creator."_

"_What should I do?"_

"_You are Nobody, you can be Anybody. You should find your own way…" _

It did not understand why Creator left, leaving it with nothing. Lonely. It was the biggest betrayal It had ever felt. The first emotion that appeared within It's body. No name, no purpose…

Humans; selfish and cruel creatures, hurting others just to see the result. And yet, It wanted to be like them. They enjoyed their lives, just like It wanted to enjoy its own. But the data was still insufficient… Coming to Metro City and turning it into its play ground was a good choice. It was so much closer to that goal…

The reporter distracted it. Threw it off balance and It made a mistake. Then again, humans also made mistakes… A small light of triumph lighten up inside It. It did achieve something, after all. Now it needed something to turn the mistake into a favor. And there was the issue of Megamind and Ms. Ritchi. Getting rid of the hero was the matter of honor now. The plans needed to be sped up. Then it could play more with the brunette woman…

* * *

><p>I'm back! So is Nobody. Just what is that little creep planning? Will we have a happily ever after? Hmm... As if I know! xD<p>

Review! So I can give you more clues in the next chapter!


	5. Chapter 5

_The next day…_

Roxanne bent under the yellow tape and entered Carl's home.

"Not much here," Jude spoke behind her back, turning his head round.

He was right. The small apartment was almost empty, partially thanks to the group of technicians who had visited it earlier, but partially thanks to Alleyne's life style. He was a man devoted to his job and free spirit, not really caring that sometimes, all he had to eat was a slice of bread and glass of water. His flat consisted of a small bed, desk, drawers and a bookcase. Interior of which a hermit could have been proud off. But nevertheless, Carl was an excellent investigator. And a smart man. Roxanne just knew he would never leave anything important in a place which could have been easily moved. Especially on his laptop. Carl always had copies and copies of copies. She just had to find them.

"They really went through all of this?" She waved her hand in the direction of the bookcase.

"Yeah, and we found nothing," the man confirmed.

"Did they move the furniture?"

"Well, we definitely checked under the bed and checked all the books and stuff, but… No, I don't think so."

"Help me with that bookcase," Roxanne said, rolling up her sleeves and walking straight towards it.

The detective smirked, took off his jacket and also rolled up his sleeves. Soon the bookcase had been moved into the center of the room. The reporter was slowly checking the back of it, softly knocking at it.

"You reporters are almost like CIA agents when it comes to hiding your notes," Jude chuckled, watching her work.

"Carl was responsible for many important discoveries and scandals, which cost money for very important and not so nice people." She sighed. "I hide my most important reports in the bathroom, in a plastic bag under wall tile."

Shaking his head, Jude walked over to the wall and started to mimic what she'd been doing. Roxanne moved to the drawers and the desk. Soon they started to check the floor. After a few hours of work they found nothing.

"Where haven't we looked yet?" Jude asked, sitting on the floor, his hands fiddling in his pockets for a cigarette.

"The bookcase," Roxanne replied after a few seconds.

"We checked it."

"I meant _under_ it."

Groaning, Jude got up and moved the furniture back. The brunette quickly checked the area and was rewarded with a loose floorboard.

"Bingo," she whispered to herself. Underneath was an old shoebox filled with CD's, floppy disks and rolls of film. When she lifted the box up she also discovered a worn out notebook.

"You know, I should confiscate this, but let's say I wasn't here," Jude said, seeing how she was hiding all of it into her purse. "One question, though."

"What is it?" Roxanne asked, standing up and throwing her bag over her shoulder.

"How do women manage to fit all of your women-ly things in purses and find it later without hiring archeologists for help?"

"That, my dear friend, is a mystery to you men," she said with a gleam in her eye and a wicked smile.

The man sighed in defeat. He wondered if Megamind knew the answer to that; he was a scientist, after all. But after a double take at his friend, Jude decided that even a giant alien mind wouldn't comprehend the creation of women… That was just too complicated.

Megamind bit his finger, frustrated. The virus was smarter than he realized! Almost as if it was a living being. No, it w_as _a living being. And an annoying one. It kept on playing 'hide and seek' with him. He chased it for hours and was growing weary of the charade. The blue genius groaned and fell back in his chair. His eyes hurt. As much as he hated it, he pulled a small case out from his desk. He rarely used those…but it seemed he would be spending much more time in front of the computer… Checking if it was safe, he opened the case and put on a pair of glasses. Feeling much better he returned to the program.

Megamind cracked his fingers, took a sip of his coffee and once again entered the crazy game with the A.I. program. He had a feeling it was important. That if he managed to capture it, he would see the greater picture.

His fingers danced across the keyboard. To a random onlooker it looked completely normal, but to Megamind it was like a chase between trees, in a very thick forest, after a madly giggling fairy. And it escaped him once again. The ex-super villain didn't want to connect the laptop to any of his other computers. That could have been a double edge sword. He might have solved the problem easier, but on the other hand, the A.I. could escape and infect all of his machines. He needed to be faster and smarter. He almost heard the program giggle at him, playing on its nose to mock him.

"How's it going?"

"Aaargh! Roxanne! Don't startle me like that!" He literally jumped a few meters in the air.

"Sorry, sweetie." Roxanne smiled innocently at him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He sighed and returned the embrace. "So, how's it going?" Roxanne repeated the question.

"I can't catch it," he pouted. "It's just faster than me! Whenever I think I have it cornered…it just escapes! It just doesn't play by the rules," he grumbled.

"Rules? You treat it as a living thing?" She blinked, surprised.

"Well…sort of… It has a mind of its own…" he explained.

Roxanne smiled and kissed the top of his head (which was possible thanks to the fact he was sitting in his chair).

"Maybe it doesn't know there are rules to follow," she said. "Or maybe it has its own rules. So why don't you try to break a few of them. Or make your own." She smirked and added, "Mister Evil Overlord."

Megamind gave it a short thought. "You know…maybe you're right… Thank you."

"You're welcome. And… I've never seen you in glasses before."

He blushed a deep fuchsia. "I don't wear them often…" He tried to take them off, but she stopped him.

"I think you look sexy in them," Roxanne whispered into his ear. "When you finish, don't take them off when you come to bed." She gave his ear a small nibble and left, swinging her hips.

"And _now_ I'm supposed to work?" he groaned. He loved Roxanne, but sometimes she was so…distracting. "And I doubt you'll give me a decent answer…" He directed that to the laptop, which was gleaming innocently.

Roxanne entered kitchen and sniffed the air. Minion had just cooked something delicious.

"Hmm… Something smells divine…"

"Oh, Miss Ritchi! I'm so glad you're back! How was your day?" Minion beamed at her happily with his usual big, toothy grin. "I made lasagna." The fish put down the hot tray.

"Minion, you're fantastic!" She walked up to him. "And it seems my day was much better than Megamind's was. I found Carl's documents. I need to go through them still." She took her plate from her boyfriend's sidekick and sat down by the table. "Maybe you'd like to help me? Since Megamind's playing hide and seek with the virus."

"That would be really nice." Minion prepared a plate for his boss. "I'll help you after dinner."

"Thanks."

Later on, after rejecting a few floppy disks and CDs, they began to get through some more recent investigations of Alleyne's. It seemed that the man worked on a few cases simultaneously. Roxanne asked Minion to copy all the data to a folder on her desktop.

Although, Carl's notes caused her a serious headache. The man used some kind of a code and short cuts, and his handwriting was outrageous. She flipped through the pages until the very end of the notebook. There she noticed a very familiar surname.

"Nikto," she read, surprised.

"Excuse me?" Minion raised his head from the computer screen.

"This is the name of the guy from NanoCorp…" Roxanne explained a bit absentmindedly. The surname had been circled, and to the side '_p.14_' had been written.

Roxanne flipped back to the page 14. On the page was a short note about someone named Monique Starowinska and Biełła Woronin. She recognized the latter name; it was the name of Nikto's mother. But the second one she didn't recognize at all.

"Minion, can you google _Monique Starowinska?_" she asked the fish, and he did as asked.

"You mean the serial killer, sentenced to life imprisonment and no possibility for a parole?"

"What?" Roxanne abruptly stood up and jumped next to Minion, reading articles on the case. "What would Biełła Woronin have in common with this person?"

Minion only shrugged.

_It_ watched the man lying in front of it. He was trying to stop the bleeding at his throat. Futile attempt.

"You bitch…" the man wheezed.

"Bitch? I'll need to be female in the first place," It said formally, cleaning the knife. The man tried to stand up, but the loss of blood was too great. His vision began to swim; he could have sworn that the woman in front of him began to shimmer, losing her form and becoming a smooth metallic humanoid…thing. Then it was the end for him.

It waited a couple of seconds and then decomposed, creating a blanket out of itself and covering the whole body of the man. A few seconds later the man – as if he were alive again – stood there, a bundle of clothes at his feet, but he was still dressed in his best suit.

Suddenly a phone rang on the desk. The man casually walked over to it and picked up the phone.

"Frank Bonnin, how can I help you?"

* * *

><p>More creepy creepers. Also Monique is my Original Character which I use for my original stories. She will make a short appearance here.<p>

Review? Seriously guys. Please review.


	6. Chapter 6

_It_ looked at its hand. So human looking… A new body was always a bit distracting, but the uneasiness would pass soon. Maybe It should have called secretary, telling them to take a day off instead of coming into work… Hmm…

The doors opened and Roxanne walked in.

"Hi, Frank. God, you don't look so good. Are you okay?" She sat down in a chair, giving It a concerned look.

"I'm fine." _It_ observed the woman closely. A human would view her normally. The same smiling, kind Roxanne; full of energy and just waiting to report the news. But _It_ could sense the excited pulse in her veins, and smell the adrenaline, but there were also the slightly grey circles under her eyes just beneath her makeup, invisible to others. She'd stayed up late. She'd found something and wanted to hide this. It knew she was too smart for her own good. "You wanted something from me?"

"Yes. I need at least a few weeks off."

_It_ raised its eyebrows, or Frank's in fact. "I remember you telling me something about it yesterday night. Why would you want that now?"

"I think I found something related to Carl's death, Frank. It might be a dead end, but I need to check it anyway. But for that I need to travel out of the country." Roxanne placed her elbows on his desk, leaning closer. As if she was afraid someone might hear them.

"What have you found, Roxanne?" _It_ narrowed Frank's eyes. _Too smart, Miss Ritchi. Too smart…_

"I found Carl's notes. I can tell you, his handwriting is horrible, but once I managed to decipher that I found something interesting about Nikto's family. Nicolay's mother, Biełła, was somehow connected with Monique Starowinski, a serial killer who, right now, is kept in a prison in Poland. And he somehow marked her as someone important. Also there were rumors about Nicolay's grandfather, Awdiey Woronin, and his experiments with A.I. technology. That was also a reason for their bad financial situation. His daughter, Biełła, continued her father's research, thanks to her husband."

"She must have been unsuccessful, if there are no intelligent robots wandering around,"_ It_ noticed plainly. _It_ should have checked the whole house. Apparently the data was hidden somewhere else…

"Biełła disappeared fifteen years ago. But there were rumors she's alive. People had seen her in Russia a few times. Surprisingly, her husband and son never looked for her. I suspect that Monique might have some information about that."

"I doubt it. If Carl hasn't found anything, then there's no point in researching it again. He met that woman, didn't he?" _It_ crossed Frank's arm. The ground was burning under its feet. But _It_ was also very lucky. Killing Mr. Bonnin was a great idea. Now all _It_ had to do was turn Roxanne's eyes away from Monique. That was another mistake from the past. _It_ should have killed the woman when it had the opportunity, but the woman was smarter than _It_ had suspected.

"Yes, but the pages from the interview with her were torn. I couldn't find them. Carl must have removed them, but I'm not sure why. It must have been important." Roxanne began to search in her purse and found a worn out notebook. "Look, here."

_It_ took the notebook and gave it a closer look. Tempting as it was to destroy the evidence, kill Roxanne and flee… Somehow, somewhere deep inside _It_, appeared excitement. Excitement from hunting and being hunt. Monique once tried to explain that to it, but _It_ couldn't understand what she was describing at that time. _It_ had no hormones or biological reactions, but the emotion appeared anyway… So, it returned the notebook to Roxanne. Indeed, if _It_ hadn't killed Carl Alleyne at that time, the man might have warned Roxanne. He'd found out so much…

"Interesting indeed." Then an idea appeared in its head. While Roxanne would be away from America,_ It_ could finish off Megamind! "I'll give you a month off. Try and find whatever you can, Roxanne."

Roxanne smiled and gathered up her things before standing. "See you again in couple of weeks, Frank and…take care of yourself… You look awful."

_It_ smiled. "Yes, I will." When the doors were closing behind her it added, still audible for her, "Wish you luck, Miss Ritchi."

The doors closed. And Roxanne stood there for a moment, mortified. That tone… And that line… A shiver ran down her spine. She shook her head. No. That was Frank, her producer! _Get a grip of yourself, Roxanne. You have a job to do._

But she couldn't shake the feeling that something really bad had just happened.

Megamind sighed and leaned back into his chair. Chasing that program around was very tiring. And he had to check up on the data the nanobots had gathered. He moved from the laptop to his main computer and checked the info from the small robots. The machines were divided into teams, connected to each other, creating a chain of information. This way, if one tiny robot was accidentally destroyed, the others could easily store the data it gathered. He skipped through the information and damage reports. Five nanobots were destroyed during the infiltration. Megamind looked at the data gathered by the destroyed machines and froze at number three. There was a video.

It showed a dark tunnel, probably the vents. Then the robot found itself in a dark room. A cracked mirror, a desk, a chair and a bed resembling the prison beds could be made out in the dark. Suddenly the robot was lifted. _Lifted._ A microscopic robot was _lifted_ by something observing it. The blue man felt as if he was watching a horror movie. He could see that thing was visible only for few seconds before the robot was crushed. Whatever it was, it was not human. It had no face, was shimmering in silver in the dark and _moving_ like agglomeration of bugs, reminding him of Oogie Boogie from _The Nightmare Before Christmas_. Only, it wasn't bugs.

Megamind rewound the film and captioned the thing. Then he zoomed in and gulped again. This had to be a dream. The being in the video was made of nanobots. Thousands and thousands of tiny robots…

When he closed the photo and shut down the computer he thought: _If NanoCorps has a being like that in their possession… why haven't they announced it?_

Somehow he thought he knew the answer. Though it had no face, it gave off the impression of being sinister and simply evil. And worst of all, being completely aware of that.

Roxanne came back to the Lair confused. She went downstairs to the living quarters, which were placed under the former Evil Lair.

She took off her shoes and handed her coat to a Brainbot. She knew she should go and greet her blue beau and his sidekick, but…there was just too much on her mind right now. Frank was acting strange the whole day. He even sounded and looked strange. It might have been the beginning of flu, but who knew? His whole behavior was so… emotionless. Even when he tried to express himself, show concern or interest, it was as if he was unsure which expression he was showing. And for once, he hadn't yelled at anyone for the whole day.

Yesterday, when she'd talked to him over the phone, his voice was…off… Like there were two people in him trying to talk at the same time. Or someone standing just behind him and telling him what to say. She thought it was because it was 3 a.m. and she was really tired. Today his voice was okay, but… He was lacking emotions. Just like _Nobody_…

She sat down on the couch and stared at the gigantic aquarium, serving the role of a window. The eerie blue light gave her mind some peace, making her thoughts run slower and calmer. She was missing something. Something important. The woman looked at her purse with a worn expression; maybe Monique would give her some answers. Clues.

"Roxanne?"

The reporter jumped a little at the sound of Megamind's voice behind her. He looked tired, surprised and happy to see her at once. She always wondered how he could fit so many emotions into his face at the same time. No matter what the answer was, he could always make her smile. And she did.

"Hi, honey. How was your day?"

"Pretty much okay…" Megamind watched her carefully. "How was yours?"

"Difficult," she answered with a sigh. Her blue beau sat next to her.

"Care to explain?"

"It's just… Today I talked with Frank. He looked awful. We talked about my trip to Poland to see Monique Starowinski, that killer. And then he said something to me. He wished me luck and that… It made me think about Nobody. Megs, am I paranoid?" She looked helplessly at him and he embraced her, holding her close and kissed her head.

"No, you're not. Roxanne, you went through Hell… It left a print in you."

She snuggled into him, tears running down her face.

"I just want to forget… I want to forget it so much…"

"Shhh. It's okay. You'll be fine." He kissed her forehead. "We'll be fine."

And they sat like that for a long time, basked in the blue light of the aquariums. Later, when Minion found them asleep, he simply smiled, shook his head, and then covered them with a blanket.

Patience is a virtue, they say. The A.I. virus did not know the saying, but it knew that being patient brought benefits. The virus didn't possess any eyes to see, but it could observe the world outside in its own way. Megamind was very careful and wary with it, but the computer needed a power source. It wasn't enough to help it escape, but it was enough to gather information from across the lair and even a bit from the outside world.

That was how it got to know about 'brain bots'. The virus had already reformatted the computer with Megamind not noticing this, so it could now use the electric cords to 'listen' to what happens outside. There was this one brain bot, which kept coming over, curious as to what the blue alien was doing with the computer. A plan has formed in the virtual mind of the program.

It began to suck out more energy that was required for the computer, causing an overheating when the particular Brainbot came again to investigate and the ex-supervillain was away. It bowged, confused, and poked the screen. It was at the same moment when smoke started to rise from the computer. The panicked machine decided to fix it, before Daddy would suspect it was somehow the poor Brainbot's fault. But how to diagnose the problem?

The little helper made a quick choice. The cyborg connected itself to the computer. That was the moment when the A.I. jumped, quickly transferring big part of its own programming into the Brainbot. When that was done, the confused machine flew away.

The Brainbot began to sway, its bowging growing weaker. Finally, the machine landed on the floor. Something was overwhelming it. Taking control over it. The organic part of it tried to resist but was soon silenced. The A.I. virus – which was essentially a part of Nobody – had finally taken control over the Brainbot. Next step; accomplished.

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><p>Whooo... Next chapter complete!<p>

Now please be nice and review if you want this story to progress ;D


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